Rhetoric vs. Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools.

Vouchers and charters are two of the most ambitious attempts to improve school performance through parental choice and privatization of governance. The updated edition of this book (which was first released in 2001) summarizes new empirical evidence on the achievement impacts of voucher programs and charter schools operating in various locations across the country (and, to some extent, around the world). It concludes that neither the hopes of the supporters nor the fears of the skeptics have been realized, but that well-designed voucher and charter programs have shown promising signs, while few have shown any evidence of substantial harms to student achievement. The authors note that the details of policy design are likely to be critical to the effects produced by choice programs: not all voucher programs and charter laws are alike, and different programs will produce different effects. They call for additional research to help clarify the importance of specific policy elements and to assess a deeper and wider range of student outcomes.